Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Honda CBR125 or Yamaha YBR125? New or used?

Congrats by the way!

Thanks man! Super psyched by it. I did some light touring in Northern Thailand and I got instantly hooked. It's hard to articulate how incredible it was.
Something used would be preferred. Not fussed over sportiness or lack thereof, just something I can improve technique with.

I'd go for something cheap and minimally abused.

I like the suzuki van van or the yamaha tw125.

My CG125 was a dream first bike. Picked up a great low mileage one for £500 and ragged the shit out of it with no problems and minimal maintenance.

me too, kickstart for super reliability.

125's always have a hell of a premium. You see those Chinese Honda CG copies are only around the £950 mark new and registered. Saw one that looked a bit like a Van Van for £350 on my local gumtree the other day, had less than a thousand miles on it before being garaged, guess something broke that the importer could not get hold of = possible junk though.

Honda C90/110? They are going up in value and are getting a bit of a cult following thing going on. Buy one for a few hundred with a burst engine, buy 110/125cc Lifan engine, install with adjustable and a hammer, then ride and profit when/if you want something else.

@Brickman I'm liking the sound of this already. Everywhere I look it's CBR's for a hell of a lot of cash. Hammers and spanners is just my cup of tea. I do remember Topps pizza drivers near my house as a kid absolutely tearing around on C90's. There's also an unreal amount of people loading them up to x3 their weight and touring them. How is beyond me.
I wouldn't mind something I can strap some Alpkit bags to and just go off to explore some b-roads.
Got a massive soft spot for 90's boxy bikes.

One of those Topps Pizza drivers might have been me! I love C90s, they are the cockroach of motorcycling - a nuclear holocaust wouldn't stop them. We did kill one trying to run it on Nitromethane but that's about it.

Dead easy to maintain too.

Top idea. I so love C90s. My neighbour has one, it's basically made of string and rust. It goes.

And tyres, what, £15 a pop?

New lump... single seat... chop the rear guard... win.

I had a 2001 Suzuki dr 125, Got to love boxy trail bikes

I'd say Honda CBF125 or equiv.
Don't go for CBR125 YZF125 for 1st bike.

Yamaha MT125 looks good but pretty new so £££

http://wanderonahonda.co.uk/

and

http://c90adventures.co.uk/

Is where to loose a few hours/days to reading and watching Ed + Rachaels C90 adventures. Currently somewhere in the mid SW of north america on the trans america trail.

They are a painfully simple bike, I think the worst thing to fix on them is the weird dog leg style suspenion in a tube with a hinge type fork they run (at least on earlier versions). Everything else is easy and parts are dirty cheap.

Leading link front end - creates the frankly horrible sensation of the front end rising when you hit the front brake. Also a bit crashy over bumps. Pretty reliable though, the bushings can wear out but they're not a tricky fix.

Not man enough for the C50....

True, true, probably not. But would ride this....

These vintage Honda scooters are cool, but the price on the market is just ridiculous. I'm wondering if the not poor but cool victims are aware of it.

Whoa...ok so after some reading, the C90's seem to be edging towards the 'retro cool' level and are starting to go for quite some buck. The ones under a grand are battered to shit, which as appealing as it sounds, I'd rather spend 60% + of the time riding instead of fixing...just yet.

@DethBeard Mate at work is egging me on to get a CBR or YZF but it's just not my cup of tea at the moment. As boring as it sounds, I'd rather go for something a bit more sensible. the CBF seems quite decent and readily available. Besides, there's hairier stuff in the 'sporty' department. NSR125's and RG125 wolf would be my weapons of choice.

Anyone ever use a Varadero 125?

Amazing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgTg-KkGMEU

Mmm bacon slicer.....

Actually all that needs is a few hello kitty stickers and the value is doubled...

Or is it atomic red?

Don't buy a 'fast' 2 stroke 125. They are all ragged to shit, get stolen a lot, and you can't take your test on them unless you can prove that they have not been derestricted. Don't forget that there is a power to weight ratio component to the learner licencing rules as well as the bhp and engine size restrictions.

Pass your test and then buy something that is actually fast.

When I got sick of pushing my Vespa home I bought a 2005 Honda CBR125R, which was a lovely machine. Not very quick, quite small, but it had a 6 speed box, discs front and rear, rev counter and fuel gauge, and with Bridgestones on it you could think it round corners. Really well balanced and really easy to pass a bike test on.

One man's retro cool is another man's memory of a pizza delivery job. The C90 is a decent runaround for town, but now they're cool they will be getting lifted onto vans and disappeared on a more regular basis. I was given one 10 years ago by the taxi driver who lived over the road, he'd done his knowledge on it 10 years before and stored it under a tarp. I gave it to a neighbour who needed transport and he sold it to a dealer for £150 (like an idiot).

Think about the CG125, it's a decent real bike with gears and everything about it is economical, if you want a scooter (i.e. C90 type, it is basically a scooter) the SH125 is a decent scooter. Not sure if you can ride a 2 stroke 125 sports on your license but that would be the perfect proper biker initiation, by that I mean hours of oily maintenance work and constant parts bills.

Finally changed jobs and I'm lost my company car. Seems like perfect justification for another bike. Ive been looking for a decent but cheap 600. Thought I'd found it last night in a late 90s bandit 600. Unfortunately the text background check flagged 15 previous owners which I could live with... And a plate swap suggesting either a vanity plate or a mangled frame. Glad I didn't knee jerk impulse buy. So off to more dealers today. Truly loving being 39 though as insurance is next to nothing.

I saw this pimped out C70 not too long ago

we got Hurricane Abigail up here - came home early with gusts of 40 mph - was just about on the limit of being able to ride, not fun

Anyone know reasonably priced places to get courier/food delivery insurance (business cat 2, not hire and reward as paid hourly rather than per delivery). Yes I might start working for Deliveroo, a lot of folk think they are awful, and I will probably come to realise that pretty quick, but just now the place I work is about to collapse and really CBA'd with another company going belly up on me, hence easy'ish money when I want it.

Though its hilarious they don't have a base of operations where I live, instead they just hang around the back seats in a starbucks.

I think Cat 2 business is the correct one, the first company I rang went straight to Cat 3 and gave me a quote nearly twice as high as any (even modified) car quote I've ever had (£3400 for a fecking 96cc moped). Essentially if legitimate insurance doesn't work out at a reasonable price (<£400, given regular SDPC insurance would be about £80 per annum) its not viable.